according to a study by an international consulting company, more and more companies are outsourcing.
50% of European and American companies will adopt, over the next three years, outsourcing solutions within the scope of procurement operations, compared to the 22% that are already implementing them as a strategy.
This is a survey carried out by an International Consulting Company through interviews with more than 200 procurement managers, chosen from companies belonging to different sectors in Europe and the United States. The survey results show that French companies are the most inclined to introduce outsourcing in the near future and that 64% will immediately implement such solutions by 2006.
British and American companies follow with 58%, Italian with 42%, while in the rest of Europe 39% of German, Austrian and Swiss companies intend to introduce procurement outsourcing services in the next three years. The area in which outsourcing finds greatest application is in processes considered non-strategic, where application hosting and request-for-payment solutions are located.
Referring to these activities, 43% of respondents are attracted by the opportunity to reduce costs and at the same time dedicate more time to managing in-house activities. However, 22% of those interviewed said they were willing to consider outsourcing materials by 2006, and 9% said they had already implemented this strategy.
“From the research it clearly emerges that procurement outsourcing will become a fundamental requirement for many companies.
In the future, however, the main challenge will not just be saving costs; Procurement outsourcing truly represents a fundamental instrument that companies can use to obtain new advantages in terms of strategy and competitiveness.”
The size of companies, in terms of revenue, is the main indicator of the uses they implement and the future of the procurement service provider. Among the companies interviewed, 31% of the largest sizes declared that they currently use outsourcing in some areas of procurement and 36% plan to do so in the near future. On the other hand, only 15% of smaller companies use procurement outsourcing services and only 34% agree to do so in the future.
“The companies most inclined to implement procurement outsourcing solutions are those that are larger, that is, those that have already achieved significant results by optimizing internal processes, but that continue to focus on an aggressive cost reduction strategy“.
Methodology
The research was carried out at the end of 2003 with 219 procurement managers from companies in 14 European countries and the United States, who responded to the internet survey about implemented and future procurement operations.
83% of respondents work in companies whose sales revenue exceeds 500 million dollars and 67% of companies have five or more centers to carry out operations.
The companies considered operate in the manufacturing, telecommunications, sales, services and public sector sectors.
